WRT unveils its drivers for the WEC, Valentino Rossi continues
For its second campaign in the GT3 World Endurance Championship, the WRT team has decided to revamp the crews of its two cars.
A bit of change. After a noteworthy first season, WRT has decided to slightly reshape its lineup for 2025. Valentino Rossi has been retained within Vincent Vosse’s structure. The Italian has consistently improved behind the wheel of the BMW throughout the races he participated in.
« I am very happy to continue my experience in WEC because last year was a good first season. We had good races, including two podiums, and we want to try to be stronger and faster. We will work hard with BMW to improve our performance and be more competitive in every race. Le Mans is, of course, the most important race, we weren’t lucky last year, but we will fight for the podium in 2025, » rejoices Valentino Rossi.
The nine-time motorcycle world champion will always be associated with Ahmad Al Harthy. The two men will be joined by Kelvin van der Linde, double ADAC GT Masters champion (2014, 2019) and two-time winner (2017, 2022) of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. The South African will thus join his younger brother Sheldon in the WRT family, but he is certainly not a new face in the team, as he has driven for the Belgian team before, WRT specifies.
In car no. 31, entered under the banner of The Bend Team WRT, Augusto Farfus is joined by two newcomers, Timur Boguslavskiy and Yasser Shahin. Originally from Kazan, the former has been a serious competitor for WRT for several years in the Fanatec GT World Europe, where he won the Silver Cup (2019) and the overall title (2023) in the Endurance Cup before joining the WEC with Lexus last year.
Experienced Australian driver Bronze, Yasser Shahin is a double Australian GT World Champion (2021 and 2022) and finished second in the LMGT3 category of the FIA WEC last year in a Porsche, with race victories at Spa and Le Mans.
« We are delighted to return to the FIA WEC LMGT3 category and to do so with strong and somewhat renewed crews. We welcome Yasser Shahin, who had a great performance last year, also securing a fine victory at Le Mans, and Timur Boguslavskiy, whom we know well from competing against him in the past. He has always given us a tough challenge, and I am happy to now have him with us », commented Vincent Vosse, the team principal.
